Gorgeously written and complex thematically, a group of boys narrate the story of sisters, some of whom take their own lives—leaving an indelible mark on their lives and memory, as well as the town and community.

The prose work is phenomenal, conjuring visceral imagery usually tied to nature and the girls, who, I am convinced embody nature fundamentally at odds with the authoritative parents who can’t help but replicate, and therefor similarly embody, societal conditions that don’t nourish people; forever in service to capitalism and perpetuating itself while destroying all things natural on earth.

The boys narrating the story are indicted by virtue of their own story. Projecting their adolescent desires and lusts onto creatures they neither understand nor seek to really nourish, only possess. And they grew up static, it appears, forever obsessed with the unknowable and never owning up to their deplorable ability to do nothing for the girls but project their literal male gaze.